Matt Campbell

Opel says it has BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz in its sights with the new mid-sized Cascada convertible.

The German arm of General Motors previously offered a drop-top version of the Astra small car (available for a time with a Holden badge in Australia), but the new Cascada has been designed to be a bigger, more mature car than that, going directly against far more expensive competitors from its home country in the form of the Audi A5 Cabriolet, BMW 3-Series Convertible and Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet.

At almost 4.7 metres long, the soft-top Cascada is longer than the Audi A5, and while it has premium aspirations it has a classy but unpretentious presence on the road and in the parking lot.

Review: Opel Cascada

The German brand's new drop-top has high-end aspirations, offering a cut-price competitor to Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. But is it any good?

So while the Cascada isn't called an Astra convertible, or TwinTop as the previous hard-top convertible was known, it does share a lot of common parts with the small car. The headlights may look familiar, and inside there's more than a hint of parts-sharing between the two. Underneath, the Cascada is built on a modified version of the Astra GTC's underpinnings.

Under the bonnet is a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo engine - but this isn't the same one seen in the current Astra. It's a new direct-injection unit with a fuel-saving stop-start system that helps it return a claimed consumption of 6.3L/100km. It's the most likely powerplant to be sold in Australia when the car is expected to launch in 2014.

With 125kW of power and 280Nm of torque, it may not sound like a go-fast special, but the engine is no slouch as you accelerate through the mid-rev range, and it is refined and quiet under low load.

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Our car was mated to a six-speed manual gearbox which offered smooth, light shifts. There will be a six-speed automatic option available too, but we didn't get a chance to sample it.

The Cascada gains Opel's "FlexRide" adaptive suspension system which can stiffen up the car's dampers to make it feel firmer for sportier stretches of road, or softer and more supple for urban duties.

We found the level of comfort offered by the suspension to be good in both modes, and the Sport setting lived up to its promise of offering a more spirited drive. It may be a different story on pitted Aussie roads, but it did leave a good first impression.

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It also has the brand's "Hyperstrut" front suspension, which is designed to lessen the amount of load on the front wheels and thus dial down the torque steer, where the steering wheel moves about in the driver's hands under acceleration. It does so commendably, with very little tugging noticeable, and the power gets down to the ground without any squealing or chirping from the tyres.

Being a convertible it would be forgiven (to an extent) for the body feeling a bit loose through corners. But Opel has done a great job of cancelling out the wobbliness, with extra strengthening under the car and in the windscreen pillars. There's only a hint of jiggling over rough patches of road.

The roof can be opened and closed at speeds of up to 50km/h, and the operation time is 17 seconds - not lightning fast like the Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet's lid (nine seconds), but at least you can close it at a decent speed. And, in a neat touch, the Cascada's roof can also be opened and closed remotely using the key fob.

When the roof is down, there's very little in the way of buffeting in the cabin, and it's easy enough to conduct a conversation without yelling. When the roof is in place, it's quiet inside, but that could partly have been to do with the fact our car - along with all the others on the launch fleet - was fitted with Opel's premium roof, which adds an extra layer of insulation and has a thicker fabric on the outside to deaden more noise. It's optional in Europe (at 350 Euro) on the entry-level model, but is standard on the range-topping variant. We may only see the top-end model locally to keep things simple for the brand and the consumer.

Having the roof up does make it difficult to see out of, particularly when glancing into the rear-view mirror. Also, the windscreen pillars are quite chunky, and can make it hard to see around some bends.

Our top-end model also featured a smart looking brown nappa leather interior, but Opel Australia has already confirmed that won't be offered locally. Instead, we're likely to see a selection of black finishes, most likely with the specially developed leather coating which can lower the fabric temperature of the seats by 30 degrees.

The cabin is a smart looking place, with neat stitched sections on the dash which cleverly disguise the hard plastics, and good storage through the cabin. There are two hidden rollover protection pillars behind the rear seats, but those in the back have no airbag protection, as the Cascada has just dual front and front-side airbags (four in total).

There is decent room in the twin rear seats, but no middle chair. It's not a bad thing, though, because three across the back would likely be a squeeze.

Some of the functional bits still need some attention, though, such as the confusing media system which has a large, bright colour display screen, but is accompanied by a plethora of confusing buttons underneath.

The boot is good at 380 litres with the lid closed, but the space does shrink a bit when the roof is dropped (to 280L). The 50:50 split-fold rear seats flip down electronically, liberating 750L of room, with 1.8 metres of length available - enough for a surfboard, snowboard or skis.

The Opel Cascada is expected to go on sale in early 2014 locally, so we're in for a long wait to see what the price will be. But based on our first impressions, if the price is right it could be a bit of a bargain against its lofty rivals.